Rejecting the derogatory term "Gringos" and the accusatory epithet "Yanquis," Cubans prefer to refer to us, their North American neighbors, as "Yumas." This blog is simply one Yuma's way of sharing his thoughts on all things Cuban, a subject that often generates more heat than light.

The Third Annual Paul Andre Feit Memorial Lecture will be delivered by Cuban writer Leonardo Padura Fuentes (see bio below) tomorrow, March 31, 2011 at Baruch College, City University of New York.

Photo: Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo

Padura will read from his sensational historical novel, "El hombre que amaba a los perros," a book that takes its readers from the Spanish Civil War, to the Russian Revolution, to the Special Period in Times of Peace; from Moscow, to Siberia, to Turkey; and from Barcelona, to Coyacan, Mexico, to Havana, Cuba - all chronicling the final years in the extraordinary life of of Leon Trotsky and his encounter with and assassination by the Catalan Stalinist secret agent Ramon Mercader (who lived out his own final years in anonymity in Cuba).

The reading will take place in Spanish.

Lunch will be served.

Leonardo Padura will be introduced by Profs. Ted Henken and Lourdes Gil. The lecture is organized by the Dept of Black and Hispanic Studies with assistance from the Department of Modern Languages.

Time: March 31, 12:30 to 2:30 p.m.

Place: Baruch College, 24th and Lexington, NYC, Room VC 3-150

All are welcome; Bring ID

PS: Padrua will be speaking again on Thursday evening from 5:45 to 6:30 at the Elebash Recital Hall at the CUNY Graduate Center (34th and 6th) in conversation with Mexican novelist Carmen Bullosa as part of the Cuba Futures Symposium.

On Friday, April 1, he will be interviewed for the programs Contraportada and Pura Politica of New York 1 (Noticias) and by Carmen Bullosa for the CUNY TV program Nueva York.

On Friday evening, he will do a reading at New York's Instituto Cervantes @ 215 E 49th Street at 6:30 p.m.

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

On behalf of several alternative bloggers and other members of Cuban civil society, we would like to give you this present. This is a small sample of the food that the self-employed are able to make from maní, the word Cubans use for peanuts, that dried fruit that you know so well.

For over half a century the maní has been one of the few products that has escaped the control of State planning. Even in the hardest days of the so-called Special Period one of the the few things we could buy on the free market produced by independent people were these cones and peanut butter bars that we offer to you today. There were times when the traditional cry of “peanuts, the peanut seller is here…” had to go practically underground, becoming a phrase whispered into the ears of clients.

This popular “criminal” food, within the reach of every pocket, has become the symbol of public resistance before totalitarian pretensions, a stronghold of creativity and ingenuity in the face of centralism and control. Here is the maní, the conqueror of difficulties, stubborn disobedient, transformed now into a symbol of union, a meeting point between your people and ours.

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Yoani Sanchez and other cyber-activists in Cuba are reporting via Twitter that they are among the members of Cuban civil scoiety who have been invited to meet tomorrow with former U.S. President Jimmy Carter (H/T Penultimos Dias).

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Here, I want to share a Radio Marti interview (click on "MP3" to the right) from the daily show, "Las noticias como son," that took place on Tuesday afternoon, March 22, a day after the broadcast of the latest chapter in the Cuban government's "Razones de Cuba" series - "Ciberguerra" (Part I / Part II) and following the release on that same day of "Razones Ciudadanas" at Generacion Y.

The interview, which lasts about 22 minutes, includes a Q & A with nearly all those present in the "Razones Ciudadanas" video beginning with the lay-Catholic leader and activist Dagoberto Valdes, lawyer Wilfredo Vallin, and the cyber-activist duo Reinaldo Escobar and Yoani Sanchez. El Yuma adds his two cents live from Nueva York and a clip of the blogger Elaine Diaz Rodriguez from the government's "Ciberguerra" video is also played during the show. A summary of the interview in English is available here.

(Disclaimer: I'm told that an obscure US law makes it illegal to broadcast Voice of America and Radio Marti shows within the boundaries of the United States. So if you actually listen to the MP3 clip above, make sure you do so from some undiscovered country or while floating out in el territorio libre del ciberespacio).

Saturday, March 26, 2011

March 26, 2011 |By Erasmo Calzadilla

This post is concerning a TV program whose theme was the media war against Cuba. In it, Yoani Sanchez and other bloggers were presented as mercenaries on the payroll of the empire.

If you want to know if a government is dictatorial, ask its representatives if there are or are not dissidents. If you get a negative answer, the more absolute it is the more it's a symptom that things are pretty ugly.

How is it possible then, at this stage of the game, that these types of functionaries continue repeating the same thing? Have they no shame? Don't they realize that by doing this they're putting nails in their own coffins?

Friday, March 25, 2011

"Havana is a marvelous place, not just for its architecture and climate, but because of its people," commented Puerto Rican film actor Benicio del Toro, who has just finished shooting the first story of Siete días en La Habana (Seven Days in Havana), a collective film project scripted in part by Cuban writer Leonardo Padura and whose central character is the Cuban capital.

Appearances by bands from Cuba as well as films about Cuban musicians will be on offer in New York this spring.

For a quick but surprisingly comprehensive education about Cuban music's influence on the United States and its deep roots in New York, New Orleans, and everywhere in between, check out this article from this morning's New York Times.

Also, be sure to click on some of the multimedia links in the article - music clips, photos, video, and of course, the guru Ned Sublette breathlessly describing Cuban music in the US as "the other great tradition."

Alejandro Ernesto/European Pressphoto Agency

Los Muñequitos de Matanzas performing at the National Theater in Havana in January 2004.

Thursday, March 24, 2011

The cyberwar heats up. Pa que lo sepa!

Wed Mar 23, 2011 6:20 pm (PDT)

Cubadebate opens its new Web page in English. With versions of Fidel Castro's Reflections, El Paso Diary of José Pertierra, exclusive materials from Cuba's Reasons series and news articles about various national and international themes, Cubadebate opens today its Web page in English that you can find at: http://en.cubadebate.cu

Here's the English version of the latest detailed report on self-employment in Cuba from the Cuban newspaper Juventud Rebelde.

My own quick read of the article indicates three things:

1) The self-employment reforms are attractive to Cubans, both the previously unemployed and the newly laid-off. There is a worry that the sprouting of scores of little negocios in town and city centers is overcrowding and uglying some areas. The numbers continue to grow at a steady rate (the last report had the number of new licensees at 117,000 and now the number is up to 171,000).

2) The most common, chronic obstacle encountered by new entrepreneurs is lack of access to goods, lack of availability of inputs/raw materials, no credit, and no wholesale markets.

3) There is new entrepreneurial activity all across the island but a bureaucratic learning curve among those hesitant or slow to issue licenses in some places.

This last point leads the authors of the article to quote President Raul Castro at length once again:

At this point, it would be good to recall what Cuban President Raul Castro said during his speech to the National Assembly of the People's Power (Cuban Parliament) on December 18, 2010:

"Regarding the need for a change of mentality, I want to highlight the following: if we have come to the conclusion that self-employment is a valid employment alternative for Cuban citizens, which can increase the production of goods and services, thus relieving the State of its responsibilities regarding such activities and providing it with the opportunity to concentrate on more decisive issues, then the Party and the government should facilitate its implementation, instead of fueling stigmas and prejudices against these kinds of activities. In this regard, it is essential to change the negative perception many of us have of private labor."

In this regard, the final section of the article is also noteworthy. Entitled, "The Definite Answer," the section is excerpted here:

"On August 1, 2010, Cuban President Raul Castro announced before the Cuban parliament the decision to boost self-employment as an option for those who lose their jobs in the restructuring process of Cuban companies. He made reference to the elimination of the exiting prohibitions regarding the granting of new licenses and trade in certain products.

"His instructions have been followed. But there are many practical issues that still need to be addressed in order to increase production and services, while improving the quality of life of those who engage in authorized business activities. The State just couldn't continue to afford subsidies.

"The implementation of self-employment certainly plays an essential role in the new economic policy aimed at efficiently increasing production, and it gives those who want to be of use to their country the opportunity to get involved."

Self-Employment Takes Off in Cuba

More than 171,000 licenses have been granted in Cuba to small business owners since the government passed a new law in 2010 broadening the scope of self-employment as a viable employment option. Young people from different parts of the country share their first impressions and experiences with Juventud Rebelde

A memory hole is any mechanism for the alteration or disappearance of inconvenient or embarrassing documents, photographs, transcripts, or other records, such as from a web site or other archive, particularly as part of an attempt to give the impression that something never happened.[1][2][3] The concept was first popularized by George Orwell's dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four."

Fidel Castro said Tuesday for the first time that he had resigned five years ago from all official positions, including chief of the Communist Party, a job he was thought to still hold. In an opinion piece, Mr. Castro wrote that when he got sick in 2006, “I resigned without hesitation from my state and political positions, including first secretary of the party ... and I never tried to exercise those roles again.” The article, which was published on the state-run Cubadebate Web site overnight and in newspapers on Tuesday morning, caught many people by surprise. “It’s incredible. Nobody can believe it,” said Magaly Delgado, a retiree in Havana. A Communist Party Congress is expected to name a new party leader in a few weeks — presumably Mr. Castro’s brother, Raúl, who is now president.

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

I have lunch occasionally with a Cuban diplomat who works at the Cuban mission to the UN here in New York City. We rarely agree, but try to keep talking... Today he sent out the following press release:

PERMANENT MISSION OF CUBA

TO THE UNITED NATIONS

315 Lexington Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10016

(212) 689-7215, FAX (212) 689-9073

PRESS RELEASE. New York/ March 22nd, 2011

Illegal U.S. programs to promote
destabilizing activities in Cuba exposed.

"The U.S. Government maintains unchanged its policy of subversion and interference in Cuban internal affairs, and its priorities of promoting internal counterrevolution and destabilizing activities, while strengthening the blockade and seizure of Cuban commercial and financial transaction all over the world."

The section of the press release that deals with yesterday's (Monday's) episode on Cuba's citizen cyber-activists (referred to dispassionately as "cyber-mercenaries" in the video) is here:

"In Cyberwar, Cuba exposed U.S. new plans of aggression using new information and communication technology, as well as the so-called cyber-dissidents or cyber-mercenaries, trying to subvert order and create confusion among the population. "Cyber Dissidents on the Web” was the site created to prepare the main actions to defame the Cuban Revolution, for which the U.S. Government has enough resources, money and the use of wireless technology, as well as social networks widely used to spread lies. "In the documentary Cyberwar, different experts exposed the modus operandi of these powerful cyberspace centers in the development of the so-called “Media Campaigns”, in which they distort reality and attack socialism and the main leaders of the Cuban Revolution. All the actions of the independent bloggers have a unique pattern, the U.S. Interests Section in Havana."

To read the full press release and get the links to all the "Las Razones de Cuba" videos that have been airing on Cuban state TV over the past month, you can go here for the full PDF of the Press Release. Below are links to the first four parts of the documentary series (the first three of which are available in conveniently translated English versions).

The first four episodes of the ongoing mini-series, "Las Razones de Cuba":

The first is a classic piece of official propaganda produced by The Cuban government that aired on Cuban television last night. It is the latest chapter entitled "Cyberwar" in state TV's new "Razones de Cuba" miniseries.

The other is a simple citizen defense clip (30 min.) featuring 5 of Cuba's most prominent cyber-activists (including Yoani Sanchez, Reinaldo Escobar, Miriam Celaya, Dimas Castellanos, and Dagoberto Valdes, along with Wilfredo Vallin, a lawyer). It is titled "razones ciudadanas," appeared on Sanchez's blog yesterday, and can be viewed there, at Vimeo, or at Penultimos Dias.

What follows is a Guardian article describing the Cuban TV show and some of Sanchez's reactions to it via Twitter.

Two highlights from the article, first from the government: "Cyberwar is not a war of bombs and bullets, but of information, communication, algorithms and bytes. It is the new form of invasion that has originated in the developed world," said the narrator.

Sanchez's retort: "I am so happy. Finally the alternative blogosphere on official television, although it's to insult us. They don't know what they've done! Pandora's Box has been smashed open!"

TheInter-American Dialogue and Florida International University ’s Cuban Research Institute co-hosted a discussion on the Cuban economy. The session took place at the Inter-American Dialogue from 8:30a.m. - 10:00 a.m. on Friday, March 11.Cuba experts Lorenzo Perez, Arch Ritter, and Phil Peters, discussed the wide-ranging set of economic reforms proposed by the Raúl Castro government, and the extent to which they are likely to effectively respond to the formidable economic challenges facing the country.

Lorenzo Perez has served as Assistant Director of the IMF Western Hemisphere Department and President of the Association for the Study of the Cuban Economy (ASCE); Phil Peters is Vice President of the Lexington Institute and author of the blog, The Cuban Triangle; and Arch Ritter is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Economics and International Affairs at Carlton University .

HAVANA, Mar 14, 2011 (IPS) - The 15-year jail sentence handed down over the weekend to U.S. citizen Alan Gross, who was found guilty in Cuba of "acts against the independence and territorial integrity of the state," is part of a new chapter in the conflict between Havana and Washington, which is now playing out in cyberspace.

Cuban authorities say Gross was providing sophisticated communication technology to internal opposition groups, including independent journalists and other activists whose anti-government activities have mainly been carried out over the Internet, vía blogs and social networking sites.

EL PASO, Texas (AP) — A New York Times reporter who interviewed a shadowy ex-CIA operative about masterminding bombings that rocked hotels, nightclubs and an iconic eatery in Cuba in 1997 is set to testify at his perjury trial Wednesday after long resisting taking the stand.

Ann Louise Bardach (link to her Foreign Policy article, "Caught in the Crossfire" - H/T Cuban Colada) has been subpoenaed at least four times for federal court appearances since 1998, when she interviewed anti-communist militant Luis Posada Carriles over two days at a lavish, walled-off compound in Aruba where he was hiding. She fought those unsuccessfully, saying her testimony would discourage other people from talking to journalists.

Cuba in Transition, Vol. 20, Papers and Proceedings of the Twentieth Annual Meeting of the Association for the Study of the Cuban Economy (ASCE).

A few excerpts:

The Internet does indeed lay a good foundation for the “battle of ideas,” but it does not necessarilychoose sides.

Expanded access to the Internet does not move societies in a single direction, partly because different constituencies within any country view the potential of the web in different ways.

Is the web a place to download democracy, boot up development, or plant the virus of dissidence and destabilization?

For many governments, especially those like the Cuban government that struggle against underdevelopment and the “digital divide” that continues to separate wealthy from poor countries in terms of Internet cost and connectivity, new ICT has the potential to be harnessed as a veritable “economic miracle” allowing a country to “leapfrog” into the modern era.

At the same time, citizen journalists and blogger-activists often understand the web (and especially the potentialities offered in many web 2.0 applications and the cutting edge mobile technologies made widely accessible by the new generation of smart phones) as a kind of revolutionary “Roman senate” where they can open up a closed system carrying out a “net roots” reform movement they like to call “blogostroika.”

Meanwhile, governments around the world have become wary of the security risks posed by increased and nearly universal connectivity with financial, military, and other secrets potentially exposed to malicious hackers often working at the service of their foreign adversaries. For them, the same web that could be embraced to boot up development, should also be feared as a potential “Trojan horse” where its enemies, real or perceived, can unleash the “virus” of dissidence and destabilization.

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

In a previous post, "From 3 to 11," I forwarded a news item that stated that there were eight new cities/airports authorized by the Obama administration to arrange direct flights to and from Cuba, in addition to the three current direct embarkment points: Miami (MIA), New York (JFK), and Los Angeles (LAX).

However, while that article gave the number eight, it only named seven new cities/airports: Tampa (TPA), Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW), Chicago (ORD), SanJuan (SJU), Pittsburgh (PIT), Baltimore (BWI), and Atlanta (ATL).

What, then, is the mysterious eighth city/airport left off that first list...?

The city that care forgot, of course.

New Orleans, Louisiana (aka, NOLA, The Big Easy, MSY).

Check out this AP article that gives the details on New Orleans and its Louis Armstrong International Airport (MSY) being included in the mix.

I once interviewed Enrique Nuñez, the owner of the recently re-opened La Guarida paladar restaurant in Cuba. There's a link to my interview here.

Two things that I remember from that interview (conducted sometime between 2000 and 2001) that are appropriate to mention here:

Enrique told me then that "if I were a betting man, I would not buy stock in the future of self-employment in Cuba. It's a game and you have to know how to play it. But the government really doesn't want us around."

He also said: "I realize from this expereince that I was a born-entrepreneur. The only problem is that I also discovered that I was born in the wrong country."

From the article below, it seems that Enrique (along with many other Cubans) is changing his bets and now has a reason to hope that Cuba is no longer the "wrong country" for an aspiring entrepreneur.

Tuesday, 8 March 2011 - Independent.co.uk
Enrique Nuñez tells the story of the traveller given sustenance by a poor farmer who lives on the milk of a single cow. He shows his gratitude by killing the animal. When he returns a year later the farmer is rich. "It forced him to put his pastures to new uses," says Mr Nuñez. In Cuba, it is time to kill the cow, too.

March 8, 2011 - Boosting the number of airports allowed to host Cuba flights from three to 11, the Obama Administration is creating space for more growth of Cuba travel from the United States.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (USCBP) added Tampa, Dallas/Fort Worth, Chicago, San Juan, Pittsburgh, Baltimore and Atlanta to the list of airports authorized to host Cuba flights, according to Tampa airport officials. Miami, New York and Los Angeles have so far been the only U.S. airports licensed to host Cuba flights, with Miami capturing the bulk of Cuba travel from the United States.

The Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce announced Monday that Tampa International Airport received permission to offer Cuba flights.

"We thank the Obama Administration for recognizing the benefits of expanded air service to Tampa Bay area residents and businesses," said Bob Rohrlack, president and CEO of the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce. "Cuban-Americans in our community and businesses conducting legal trade with Cuba can now save time and money by flying nonstop from Tampa."

Monday, March 7, 2011

A friend wrote me this morning from Central America asking if I was also having trouble viewing Yoani Sanchez's Generation Y blog. I logged on and typed in http://www.desdecuba.com/generaciony and indeed got the error message above. Checking back again now six hours later, I'm still getting the same message.

At the same time I noticed that an entirely new interface is up at GY's traditional web portal http://www.desdecuba.com/. Instead of being directed to the previous portal with links to the now defunct magazines, Consenso and Con Todos, as well as to the entire collection of texts that make up the polemica intelictual, the site now hosts links to 41 individual blogs or sites as shown in the screen shot below.

This format essentially mirrors that of Voces Cubanas (see screen shot below), where links to the same 41 blogs (plus 1) are housed. However, checking through them, I discover that five other blogs apart from Sanchez's Generacion Y are also unavailable at present.

Saturday, March 5, 2011

HAVANA — American contractor Alan Gross was found guilty on Saturday of working to destabilize Cuba's communist government, Cuba's state-run television reported, and now faces up to 20 years behind bars in the latest blow to U.S.-Cuba relations.

A panel of judges reached the widely expected verdict after two days of testimony including a vigorous defense by Gross, and now must decide his sentence, which will come in a few days, the report said.

HAVANA – More than 113,000 licenses to start businesses were granted in the first four months of President Raul Castro's push to expand the scope for self-employment and entrepreneurship, Cuba's official press said Friday.

"As a result of the new measures in effect since the end of last year there are 157,371 self-employed workers in the country, a number that will soon double," Juventud Rebelde newspaper said.

Havana, March 4, 2011 - More than 113,000 permits for non-state employment, known as self-employment, have been granted in Cuba, now with the advantage of receiving social security benefits to raise the standard of living of those workers.

Havana, March 5 (Prensa Latina) - Some 113,618 Cubans had been authorized to work as self-employed workers by January 31, 2011, since the regulations to exercise that kind of labor modality were eased in late October 2010, according to Idalmys Alvarez, director of Employment at the Ministry of Labor and Social Security.

When the new measures were taken in late 2010, there were 157,371 self-employed workers in Cuba. Alvarez noted that 20 percent of the new self-employed workers got their licenses to make and sell food, in its different variants, including the so-called "paladares" or restaurants.

This more good, welcome news for those of us who advocate for an expansion of cultural, educational, and people-to-people exchange between the U.S. and Cuba.

For those unfamiliar with Padura's work, some of which has been translated into English, you can go here and here for previous posts where I discuss him and his work. When I was still a graduate student at Tulane Univeristy in the late 1990s, I was lucky enough to meet him and even take a few classes from him as part of an exchange of writers, artists, scholars, and intellectuals that was quite active under the Clinton administration.

From the impression I had of him then, and have deepened since from reading many of his books (music journalism, literary criticism, crime novels, and historical novels), I can say that this guy will blow your socks off whatever your political persuasion or allegiances. He has a sharp, critical mind and his books unflinchingly depict Cuba's rich, complex culture and history, as well as the beauty and tragedy of today's Havana with a love and fidelity bordering on obsession.

Though he will be passing through Miami, that city and state's singularly obstructionist foreign policy has made it impossible for any public univeristy there to sponsor an event with him.

I guess any interested miamenses will have to travel north to hear this amazing writer.

The Department of Modern Languages and Comparative Literature

The Department of Black and Hispanic Studies

and the Paul André Feit Memorial Fund cordially invite you to

a book reading and discussion by:

LEONARDO PADURA

Photo: Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo

Welcoming remarks by:

Professor Ted Henken, Chair

Department of Black and Hispanic Studies

Introduction and Presentation by:

Professor Lourdes Gil

Department of Modern Languages and Comparative Literature

and Black and Hispanic Studies

IN SPANISH

LEONARDO PADURA is Cuba's foremost living writer. A novelist, literary critic and journalist, his last novel El hombre que amaba a los perros (The Man Who Loved Dogs) on Trotsky's assassination, is "a fascinating historical exploration of how socialism, the great utopia of the 20th century, became corrupted."